Easy 30 Minute Chili

I’ve been iced in for going on three days, so the most appropriate post for today is an easy 30 minute chili recipe perfect for lazy snow days, inside by the fireplace! You won’t believe how incredibly flavorful this quick and easy chili tastes. Serve with cornbread or tortilla chips, wrap your hands around the bowl and let the chili deliciousness warm you from the inside out!

This week, Texas has had a taste of the cold, icy, snowy weather that all of you Northerners have been experiencing. And there I thought spring would come without taking any of my bad weather days….

For those of you who don’t know, I work for a school district; testing students and keeping up with documentation for special education. Personally, I would rather just work, so we have our bad weather days free, at the end of the year. Oh, well… being iced in gave me plenty of time to get caught up on blog stuff, report writing for work, laundry and some additional recipe creation; like this wonderfully hearty, easy 30 minute chili meal.

I used my dad’s award-winning chili recipe as a base for this recipe. I added a few yummy extras and revised the amount of some of the ingredients that were used in the original recipe. Brad and I also love bison; so instead of ground turkey, chicken or beef we made our chili with ground bison. If you’re a meat eater and you’ve never given bison a try, you really should. It’s much leaner than even your lean cuts of beef and, in my opinion, tastier than ground chicken and turkey. Buffalo spend their lives on grass, not in feedlots and they are not subjected to questionable drugs, chemicals or hormones. Bison tastes very similar to high-quality beef with a slightly sweeter richer flavor. The popularity of bison meat continues to grow and you will likely find it at your local grocery store. The two large grocery stores in my area- Kroger and HEB both carry grass-fed lean bison steaks and ground meat.

Feel free to add a second can of beans, if you prefer. That’s one thing I love about chili, it’s super versatile and you can add in or substitute your favorite ingredients. I may whip this up over the weekend and actually measure out my servings using a measuring cup, so I can give more specific serving info. If you’re worried about not having enough, feel free to double the recipe and freeze the leftovers or eat them throughout the week. Chili is always tastier the 2nd and 3rd day anyway! 🙂